No cracks in Grand Secular Alliance, say Congress and JD(U)

Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary statement came a day after he said that while Congress was aggressively protesting demonetisation, the coalition head Nitish Kumar was in support of it. (Express Photo by Ravi S. Sahani)

Amid reports of fissures in the Grand Secular Alliance in the wake of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar supporting the demonetisation drive while Congress opposing it, the Congress and JD(U) on Thursday said that there was no “cracks” in the coalition. “Grand Secular Alliance is united in Bihar. There is no problem in the alliance,” Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary said, a day after aggressively opposing the move.

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“Both Congress and JD(U) are by and large supporting the move to squeeze out black money from the economy but they are opposed to the poor execution of the scheme which has forced common man to stand in queues for hours to withdraw one’s hard earned money,” Choudhary said. Choudhary statement came a day after he said that while Congress was aggressively protesting demonetisation, the coalition head Nitish Kumar was in support of it.

The PCC chief, who is also education minister in Nitish Kumar-led alliance government, had said that they were guided by the directives of party high command and the state unit would snap ties if the central leadership says so. Choudhary blamed the media for blowing his statement on Thursday out of proportion.

He said that JD(U) may not be aggressively opposing the demonetisation move compared to Congress, but even Nitish Kumar in his Madhubani meeting had said that people were facing difficulties in the wake of the decision. Senior JD(U) leaders Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi stood by Congress in the Parliament complex to protest against the the Centre’s demonetisation scheme, Choudhary said.

Bihar JD(U) spokesperson Sunil Kumar Singh also denied any differences within the alliance and termed it as a “figment of imagination of opposition parties.” The people of Bihar have given their mandate to Nitish Kumar government for five years and the state government was actively working on common agenda, he said.